Founding of Al-Azhar University

Al-Azhar University is a major centre of Sunni Islamic learning in Cairo, and its roots go back to the Mosque of al-Azhar, founded in the tenth century by the Fatimid dynasty after its conquest of Egypt. The mosque soon became a place where scholars taught religious sciences, law and the Arabic language, and it has been regarded as one of the oldest continuously operating institutions of higher education in the world. After the Fatimids fell, it was maintained by Sunni rulers and gradually became the pre-eminent authority in Sunni Islamic scholarship, with students from across the Muslim world. In modern times it added faculties of medicine, engineering and other secular subjects, and its head, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, is an influential religious figure.

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